Aircraft Carrier
Aircraft Carriers An aircraft carrier is a type of warship with a flight deck for carrying and deploying aircraft for combat or reconnaissance purposes. Aircraft carriers are some of the most powerful and versatile ships in Warship Craft, capable of preforming a variety of missions including anti air, anti surface, and anti submarine warfare. Consequently a ship with these capabilities is also prohibitively expensive for most players requiring either an extreme amount of grinding or an investment of real money. There are there aircraft carrier based missions, "Encounter USS Enterprise" and "Encounter Japanese aircraft carrier Shinano" and "USS Langley cv-1". There are also two airbase missions. Construction Carriers are extremely powerful vessels, but consequently can be tough to build effectively, especially for newer players. =Building Tips= * Planes need a runway to take off from. ** Runways have a length of 100 meters. ** Nothing can be placed ontop of a runway, or directly in front or behind one. This means your carrier will have a mostly flat deck. ** Planes need to be on the same level as a runway to take off. Building a ramp won't work. * Your carrier should have a beam well over the other ships in your fleet. It is recommended for your flattop to have a beam of at least 70. Stability is extremely important for a carrier. ** Planes can slide around on the deck and fall off if the carrier tilts too severely. ** The ability to execute stable turns is essential to carrier operations against big gun ships. ** Carriers are rarely symmetrical due to the addition of islands and angled flight decks. While a large enough hull will likely be able to support an island with little or no change in balance angle, an angled flight deck will need to be offset by a counter weight on the other side of the ship. Possibly an island or elevator. * It is recommended to build the keel of your carrier using large hull peices instead of armor, save for strategic points to counter torpedoes. Carriers are generally very large ships and building one completely out of armor can bring a skipper dangerously close to the 530,000 displacement and eliminate your ability to turn. ** Armor is most useful around your engines and on the flight deck where the majority of damage will be sustained. * Because planes can only be carried on the flight deck real estate is at a premium on a carrier. Fielding a large air wind requires a massive ship. ** Keep planes close together on the flight deck to pack as many as possible onto your carrier. ** Limit the size of superstructure and any deck guns. Armament The main weapon of any carrier is its air wing. A carrier can strike far past the range of the most powerful guns. This affords a carrier an extreme amount of protection, better than any armor. Some carriers are equipped with deck guns of various sizes. The MK 45 gun is a popular choice as is the OTO 76mm because their compact size and accurate fire makes them well suited to anti air and anti ship fire. The primary weapon on a dedicated aircraft carrier should always be its air wing. A sizable complement of dive bombers and torpedo bombers gives the carrier an almost unrivaled offensive capability and fighters provide air defense and a powerful weapon against poorly armored foes. Arguably the biggest threat to an aircraft carrier is an opposing flattop. As such, anti air defenses are extremely important to a carrier. Fighter complements can defend against an enemy's planes, but it is highly recommended to equip your carrier with anti air batteries. Bofors are used to hit enemies from a relatively safe distance and 76mm triple guns preform well at mid to close range. To conserve space on the carrier deck a skipper can place guns on sponsons to the side of the ship. Strategy The best tactic for a low armored aircraft carrier would be to drive backwards while launching your planes, as to avoid any hits from the enemy. A highly armored aircraft carrier can advance with ease, but must be wary of Type 96 25mm AT/AA guns, which automatically fire upon enemy aircraft. To attack an aircraft carrier, try sailing in a highly jagged path (heavily armored warships need no worry and huge ones get bugged and sink) to avoid bombers and tp planes. Fighters however, home in on the player. Once you get near, fire. The long range ones are ideal. Attack and close in. Try to attack the planes that come in for landings, as they will hurt less. Try to slope the ship to make planes fall off. Hypercarrier These are the most powerful carriers out there. They can only be created by jailbreaking and some knowledge on coding. It involves editing the game files, and superpositioning copious amounts of aircraft in one spot (the same X, Y, Z coordinates). This means it is possible to launch thousands of aircraft at once due to them taking no time to reach the runway.